Ergonia

CTO / Technical Lead - Waybridge

Ergonia

32 days ago

## CTO / Technical Lead Waybridge, backed by Ergonia, is building an institutional borrow/lend protocol on Canton Network. We have an operational mainnet validator, existing smart contract code, and active counterparty relationships with institutional participants. We are looking for a **CTO/Technical Lead** to take ownership of the protocol architecture, inherit and evolve our existing codebase from an external dev shop, and build the engineering team as the company scales. ### The Role This is a co-builder position. You will own the full technical surface of a financial protocol: from DAML smart contracts on a distributed ledger, through the backend settlement and accounting layer, to the institutional-grade frontend dashboards. You are equally comfortable auditing inherited code, designing a new module, and closing a senior engineer hire. The four pillars below define what we need. ### Responsibilities 1. **Financial System Architecture** Waybridge is a financial protocol, not a typical web app. Every data model, state transition, and API must be designed with the rigor of a system that manages real institutional positions. - Design and own the position lifecycle engine: origination, funding, accrual, partial repayment, recall, and closure - Architect a shared accounting layer that serves multiple lending modules - Model settlement flows, collateral custody, yield attribution, and reconciliation for bilateral agreements - Ensure correctness guarantees throughout: idempotency, audit trails, and immutable state history 2. **Fullstack Engineering (NestJS + Next.js)** Our stack is NestJS on the backend, a Rust indexer for ledger events, and React/Next.js on the frontend. You will inherit an existing codebase from an external dev shop and decide what to keep, refactor, or rebuild. - Audit the inherited backend and frontend codebase; determine the refactor-vs-rewrite strategy - Own the backend services layer: RESTful APIs, settlement engine, accounting services, WebSocket feeds - Extend and optimize the Rust indexer for new on-chain event types - Guide frontend architecture for data-dense institutional dashboards (portfolio views, real-time position tracking, yield analytics) - Establish CI/CD, testing standards, and code quality practices across the full stack 3. **Smart Contract Architecture (DAML / Canton)** The protocol layer runs on DAML, a Haskell-based smart contract language on Canton Network. DAML experience is extremely rare and not required, but direct experience is a major plus. What matters is strong functional programming instincts and the ability to ramp quickly. A production Haskell or Scala engineer can be writing DAML in weeks. - Lead DAML smart contract design for lending and staking modules - Define on-chain vs. off-chain boundaries: what the smart contract enforces vs. what the backend handles - Collaborate with Canton ecosystem partners on staking protocol design and network-level integration - Bring strong functional programming depth (Haskell, Scala) and apply it to contract modeling, type safety, and state machine correctness. 4. **Small Team Management** You will hire and lead a team of 2-4 engineers. This is not a management-layer role where you delegate and review. You are hands-on, writing code daily, while also recruiting, unblocking, and setting technical direction. - Hire a Senior Backend Engineer and a Senior Frontend Engineer in the first 4-6 weeks - Manage knowledge transfer from the existing external dev shop to your in-house team - Run sprint planning and translate product requirements into engineering execution - Partner directly with the CEO on product-to-engineering decisions, sequencing, and tradeoffs ### Requirements - 8+ years in fullstack or backend engineering, with at least 2-3 years in a technical lead or architect role - Production functional programming experience (Haskell, Scala, OCaml, or equivalent) - Background in financial services, fintech, or high-growth startups building systems with correctness requirements - Hands-on with TypeScript/NestJS or Rust; comfortable owning both backend and frontend - Experience hiring and managing small, growing engineering teams - Smart contract or distributed ledger experience (any chain) is a strong plus - Passionate about building from zero to one. You thrive in early-stage environments where speed, ownership, and resourcefulness matter more than process and hierarchy ### What We Offer - **Co-founder energy:** Meaningful equity with full architecture ownership from day one - **Real and operational:** Live mainnet validator, existing code, active counterparty relationships - this is not a whiteboard project - **Canton ecosystem:** Backed by Ergonia with access to Canton ecosystem resources and partners - **Institutional demand:** Counterparties are ready. You are building for real users, not hypothetical ones - **Lean team, high leverage:** Every architectural decision you make defines the protocol - Competitive salary and benefits - Equity with long-term upside aligned to the success of Waybridge. *When applying, mention the word CANDYSHOP to show you read the job post completely.*